Thermal garment layering is considered one of the more effective means for personal insulation available. Active people use it extensively. However, layered garments typically add bulk and can impair a wearer's range of motion. Furthermore, with layered garments, it is often difficult to provide levels of insulation appropriate for all areas of the wearer's body, as different areas of the body have different sensitivities to temperature and different abilities to thermoregulate, e.g., by sweating.
Prior art fabric articles endeavoring to offer regions of differing rates of heat and/or vapor exchange, e.g. as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,332,221 and 5,469,581, typically have numerous seams for joining together multiple different areas and/or layers of the fabric articles, which increase production costs associated with cutting, piecework and sewing, and increase waste. Seams are also prone to failure and can be uncomfortable to, and even chafe the skin of, a wearer.
Similar issues arise in thermal layering of home textile articles, such as blankets and the like, and upholstery covers, e.g. for home furniture, for furniture in the institutional and contract markets, such as for offices, hotels, conference centers, etc., and for seating in transportation vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, trains, buses, etc.